|
Here at the House, we’re hard at work passing budget bills to fund our state government and agencies for the next two years. We are making good progress working across the aisle, and as a result, all our bills are passing with bipartisan support.
Due to the current reality of a 67-67 tied House, many of these bills include provisions I support and provisions I don’t agree with. However, we must compromise to pass a state budget, and even as bills are passing, conversations are continuing to ensure that the final version is the best it can be.
Here’s a quick recap of some of the bills we have voted on so far:
-
An Agriculture Budget that invests in Farm to School Programs, worker protections for bird flu, and supports new farmers with down payment assistance.
-
A Higher Education Budget that protects the North Star Promise and takes important steps to shore up our State Grant program.
-
A Veterans Budget that invests in those who served our country, especially focusing on reducing veterans' depression and suicides.
-
A Public Safety & Judiciary Budget that improves and supports victim services, police training, and privacy protections for judges.
-
A Legacy Bill that uses our lottery proceeds wisely to enhance our environment, protect our clean water, expand parks and trails, and celebrate arts, culture, and history.
-
A Housing budget that takes steps to address Minnesota’s housing shortage crisis.
-
An Environment and Natural Resources Budget that maintains our groundbreaking protection of Minnesotans’ land, water, and air from threats like PFAS, nitrates, and aquatic invasive species.
We also passed a State Government and Elections Budget that preserves key services, invests in the Attorney General’s capacity to fight consumer and Medicaid fraud, and supports state workers. During discussion, I took a moment to talk about why Minnesotans have a right to know who is getting paid to influence decisions made by our government - and why we have to be clear-eyed about efforts to weaken lobbying and public disclosure laws. You can watch my remarks here.
From here, bills are sent to conference committee to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate versions. I was appointed to serve on the Higher Education conference committee alongside House Co-Chair Rep. Wolgamott. I continue to hope that we can backfill cuts we had to make by removing for-profit colleges from the State Grant program. I offered this amendment on the House floor and despite claiming to want to save Minnesotans money, every single Republican voted against it.
While there is some great bipartisan work being done, Minnesota Republicans are still trying to follow in the footsteps of the Trump/Musk Administration by bringing bad policies to Minnesota. I took a moment to talk about and specifically demonstrate some of these attempts as they relate to our workforce, which you can watch here, and working families, which you can watch here.
|
Last Wednesday, I joined Governor Tim Walz, Commissioner of Children, Youth, and Families Commissioner Tiki Brown, State Representative Carlie Kotyza-Witthuhn, Mayor Busse, and Tamara (a SNAP recipient) at VEAP here in Bloomington to share the story about the importance of SNAP for Minnesotans.
Federal cuts could threaten over 400,000 Minnesotans - most of whom are children and seniors. At a time when hunger is already too high, these cuts are bad policy AND bad morals.
Happy Mother’s Day to everyone who celebrated this weekend. No matter if you’re a seasoned mom, a new mom, trying to become one, the mother of a rainbow child, or a caretaker, I hope your weekend was spent with family or loved ones.
This year, I brought my mom as my guest for the Governor’s State of the State Day for an informal “bring-your-mom-to-work day!”
|
|
Unfortunately, due to technological restraints, replies to this newsletter won’t reach me. To stay up to date with our important work at the State Capitol, you can see the Minnesota House of Public Information Services’ nonpartisan recaps of high-profile bills, committee hearings, and floor sessions with their Session Daily publication.
You can also stay up-to-date with the latest by following my Facebook page.
To share your input or ideas, or if I can ever be of assistance, please feel free to reach out at [email protected] or 651-296-4218, and I will be happy to help. If you were forwarded this email and you’d like to subscribe, click here. If you have a friend or neighbor who would be interested in receiving these, please forward this and encourage them to subscribe.
Thank you, as always, for the honor of serving you.
|
|
Representative Nathan Coulter
5th Floor, Centennial Office Building
658 Cedar St.
Saint Paul, Minnesota 55155
Phone: 651-296-4218
Email: [email protected] (replies to this newsletter are not monitored)
Website: https://www.house.mn.gov/51B
Legislative Assistant: Helen Flock, 651-297-8409
|
|
|
|
|
